I just heard (on my iPhone) that Steve Jobs has passed away. What a shame.

When I find yet another use for my iPhone I always think to myself, half jokingly, "Thank you Steve". I think this is a huge loss not only for gadget geeks like me, but for business and our economy as well. While it might have appeared that he was leading the race towards the new, what he was really doing was riding herd, cracking the whip, getting others to keep up in the direction he chose.

What Jobs did best was to let people know what they wanted before they knew they did. The ipod, imac, iphone, etc., are all game changers born of one man's vision. He didn't believe in focus groups, instead relying on his own tastes. I can tell you that being involved in a creative field that is a surprisingly rare quality. I wonder what fabulous, useful new technolgies we won't be using because Steve Jobs is no longer driving towards the edge. He was a true giant, the kind of visionary America likes to boast to the world about and I'll miss the magic he brought to what was previously a very dry, gray industry.